1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates generally to pretreatment of biomass using oxygen. In particular, the present disclosure relates to wet combustion of lignin components in a preconditioned biomass.
2. Description of Related Art
General definitions of “biomass” or “biomaterials” may include agricultural commodities and residues, plants and trees, algae, crop residues, waste material (including wood waste and wood residues), animal waste and byproducts (including fats, oils, greases, and manure), construction waste, and food and yard waste. Readily available sources of biomass may include agricultural crop residues (e.g., straw, corn stover, bagasse, husk, and hull etc.), purpose grown energy crops (e.g., Miscanthus and switch grass), forest residues (e.g., saw mill residues, wood chips, forest thinnings, hog fuel, and scrap wood), and wastes (e.g., municipal solid waste (“MSW”) including green waste, industrial food processing waste, manure, and sewage sludge (“SS”)).
These biomass materials may be produced in great abundance, but much of such materials may lack commercially viable end uses. In the cases of MSW and SS, great expenditures of public funds are typically used to dispose of such wastes, including costs involved in the collection, treatment, transport, and final disposal. The recovery of energy (i.e., fuels) or chemical products from biomass could avoid the costs of disposal as well as reduce reliance on non-renewable fossil fuel resources which commonly serve as feedstock for the production of many industrial chemicals.
However, many such biomass materials may contain lignin, hemicellulose, cellulose, and/or other like constituent components in varying amounts. Such biomass components may reduce the bioaccessibility of the biomass and be inhibitory for production of desirable fuels and other bioproducts from the biomass.